Burmese Days (George Orwell) - 9/10Obviously drawing on much personal experience - found it relevant to my life in several ways too.

Sphere (Michael Crichton) - 3/10Ok - I'm sick of Crichton now...

Stranger in a Strange Land (Robert Heinlein) - 4/10Sci-fi, life on mars novel. Started out ok then got wafty. Heinlein at his most dated/sexist.Prey (Michael Crichton) - 7/10Another evolution/nanotechnology sci-fi book. Interesting concepts - reminded me a little of one of my all time favourites - Diamond Age (Neil Stephenson). No where near as creative though.Origin of the Species (Charles Darwin) - 5/10Pretty boring really compared to what is written on evolution now days. Could have been condensed into about 20 pages. Still has some interesting points to make. I feel a bit guilty for ranking Quest for the White Witch higher than Origin of the Species, but my rankings are based purely on their entertainment value to me.Congo (Michael Crichton) - 7/10Aeroplace escapism but done well.Same genre as most books found here in bali - either that or some self help enlightenment hippy chick trashQuest for the White Witch (Tannith Lee) - 7/10Ok, fantasy pulp fiction